Some automatic animal food dispensers, for feeding an animal when its owner is away, are known from the prior art.
WO 2006/051130 discloses an animal feeding trough which comprises a built-in hopper. A horizontal tube positioned beneath the discharge chute is equipped with a plunger for moving the dose of feed supplied to the tube towards the discharge end thereof. The plunger is retracted under the effect of a spring which is housed inside a chamber containing a piston. The chamber has a pressurized water inlet for moving the plunger and an outlet through which the water is conveyed towards a drinking bowl during the backward movement of the plunger. In this arrangement, however, the dry animal food becomes crushed and decreased in size due to the action of the horizontally moving plunger.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,503 discloses an automatic animal feeding and watering device. While a watering system is activated, the flowing water rotates an impeller, which in turn imparts the rotation to an elongated cylinder with cork style fins along its length. Food stored in a hopper is gravity fed into the areas between the fins and then rotates to the other side of the cylinder. The amount of food dispensed from the device may be adjusted by closure of apertures interfacing with the finned cylinder or by applying a brake to slow the rotation of the impeller and cylinder. The food is dispensed to the animal at the same time water is flowing into a bowl. By using a water powered impeller, however, the angular displacement of the cylinder, and therefore the dose of the food to be dispensed, cannot be accurately controlled. A further disadvantage of this device is that the rotated dry animal food tends to become crushed by contact with the walls of the apertures through which it is dispensed.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic animal food dispensing apparatus that dispenses an accurate, predetermined dose of animal food.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide an automatic animal food dispensing apparatus that prevents the dry and solid animal food from becoming crushed.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.